Free WordPress Templates... Any Hidden Gems?

I'm getting ready to launch 2 more blogs - nothing exciting; one is just personal, and the other is promotional.

I don't need fancy or custom themes, and I've seen all of the most common Wordpress themes, and sites offering them.

But what I'd like to know is, are there any hidden gems that you've come across, whether they're newly released to just on sites most haven't heard of yet?

Wordpress is slowly but surely growing a bit more on me. I keep hearing how it can be used as a cms, so I'm testing that out on one site. If it works well, I'll be moving my largest site to WP. So I love looking at themes (especially ones that have something unique, and aren't typically "bloggy"), just for the sake of learning and seeing what can actually be done. Do you have any favorites worth mentioning?

Jenn

 

Personally I used to use one called blix, I loved its simplicity.

 

see cutline and press row by chris pearson.

simplr is also good.

 

simplr is the only one here I'd never seen before. I just downloaded it to get a better look at it.

I did come across a listing of non-blog themes, and some were ok.

Do you know of any sites off the top of your head (even if it's a custom design) that are using WP as a full CMS - for a reasonably large content site, w/o no "blog" look in the slightest? Again, I keep hearing so much about what it can do, but I haven't personally come across anything overly impressive in that sense. It always just looks like a blog filled with longer articles to me. I love the interface and everything, but I'd like to really see what it's able to do before moving things to it. Any good examples that you're aware of?

Jenn

 

I've generally just perused http://themes.wordpress.net/ for themes - usually something there works.

 

Yeah, I've seen all of those. I'm just interested in things that might be newer or from lesser-known sites... just trying to get a more diverse feel for what's out there.

 

i like this theme http://www.alexallied.com/alexified

Good luck

 

Thanks for the suggestions. This is a perfect example of what I'd like to see, and more along the lines of what I want to eventually do (although mine won't be anywhere near as purdy lol). Having different sections or blocks on the homepage, each featuring different categories essentially. I'm trying to adapt a basic free theme to do this for my zine as a kind of test to see if I can really get it doing everything I want. I might go the custom route, or convert a purchased template to WP, for the other site if it works out.

Have you come across anything else along these lines before that's been custom done?

Thanks again for the suggestions.

Jenn

 

i like his work
http://andreasviklund.com/templates/

 

Some couple of nice ones here http://www.amsterdamn.org/free-themes-for-wordpress/

 

ok, last of my hidden gems for tonight

wordpress magazine

lofitribe

Good Luck

 

Good links MarRome. The article is discussing exactly what I'd like to do on my test site, so I'll definitely give it a good read-through tomorrow when I'm feeling slightly more "conscious". And the Dirt theme on the other link, although it wouldn't work for the projects I'd mentioned already, would likely work really well for my indie music blog which I keep meaning to revive and move to wordpress. I sense another project coming on. Thanks.

Jenn

 

I also recommend cutline by chris pearson. It is all SEOed up and he has a XHTML sitemap tool that works with it too.

 

Yes, I'd seen that one previously. It's nice for a blog, but I wouldn't use it for anything else. It just doesn't really fit the particular blogs I'm looking to launch now. I'd considered it for the Six Figure Challenge blog actually before I saw the Wave theme.